I'm interrupting this dormant dog-blog to write about my entry into the world of children's literature - there will still be the occasional mention of my erstwhile doggie companion who is still a pup in spirit, if not in size.

29 Mar 2012

Another day, another dead thing

We’d just left the beach this morning and
were walking through the car park when Pip picked up one of those disgusting,
half-decomposed dead things.

It looked a bit like this...

At first I thought it was a piece of
bark. Then I saw the shrivelled up claws. For a moment I thought it might be a frog or a dead bird. But a close examination revealed the ghastly truth. It was a rat!

I
tried in vain, stopping and offering Pip a treat so that he’d drop the rat. But
there was no way he was giving up his prize for two tiny pieces of Puppy super
coat.

So he carried it all the way from the
beach car park to our back yard – about a kilometre. On the upside, when he has
something truly gross in his mouth, he can’t chew on his $40 lead – something he
does a lot lately. He’s almost worn it through already in one place but luckily
it's double-ended.

We started climbing the back stairs up
to the house and I said to him, ‘There’s no way you’re bringing that disgusting
thing inside!’

Now, I realise I’m in grave danger of
becoming a weird dog person, but I’m really starting to think Pip understands
me. He dropped the rat under a tree and obediently trotted up the stairs with
me so he could take up his spot on his designer doggie bed.

So far, so cool. But...

Several hours later, I opened the back
door to go pick the kids up from school and, of course, he raced into the
backyard to pick up his treasure. He insisted on carrying the dead rat all the
way to school. Kept it firmly in place as we stopped and chatted to a couple of
ladies, hung on for grim death as Evonne the lollypop lady bent over to give
him a pat and then thoroughly grossed out the school Mums by flipping it up in
the air and catching it in front of them.

Luckily, D2 came bounding out at that
stage and in a moment of distraction, I managed to yank Pip away from the
rodent. D2 then very kindly found a stick and ‘golfed’ the dead rat away from
the playground.